Ellen's Masters opens the door to fighting financial crime

Time to decide

Ellen joined the bank after completing two degrees at Derby – BSc (Hons) Criminology and then MSc Criminal Investigation. “I enjoyed the Criminology degree so much that I simply wasn’t ready to stop learning,” she explains. “I was also very unsure of the specific career path that I wanted to take. Thanks to the Masters – and more specifically the modules covering financial crime – I now know.”

Ellen finds the work at Santander ‘unbelievably rewarding’. “Financial crime funds a wide range of criminal activities that put people like you and me at risk every single day. Knowing that I am helping to disrupt, detect and deter this is the most rewarding part of the job.”

Specialist skills

Masters study allowed Ellen to develop specialist knowledge: “I learned skills and investigative methods that I am now applying in my current role. My job involves anti money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism. We covered these in depth on the course. I believe that having this niche knowledge helped me massively when I applied to Santander.”

Support is key

Staying at Derby for her postgraduate studies was not a difficult decision for Ellen: “I was so happy at Derby that I didn’t consider any other universities. A key reason was the support of the lecturers; my postgraduate course was on the same site as my first degree with some of the same lecturers. This was so nice as my fellow students and I had bonded so well with them. On top of this, the discount given to students who progress to a masters at Derby was too good to miss.”

Looking forward

It’s early days for Ellen at Santander and she’s keen to see how her career will unfold: “During my training I will have three placements in three separate financial crime departments. Doing this will help me to pinpoint where I would like to take my career. I can’t wait to see what the future holds with Santander.”